You make it sound like a video game. What you're talking about is very likely the end of the world. You're talking about sending missiles into the country with the world's largest nuclear arsenal, and very little else, at this point. You're talking about destroying infrastructure on Russian soil and killing Russian citizens. Do you think they're just going to sit back and say, "Ah, you got us, guess we're even now"? They won't. They're going to fire back. And then we're going to fire back. And then they're going to obliterate one of our cities. And we're going to obliterate one of theirs. And at that point, it's very unlikely that we, any of us, will be able to put a stop to a general nuclear exchange. Nobody gets any points on a screen out of this. Nobody lives to compare scores at the end. Everything we've done for the past 15,000—hell, 2 million—years ends. So all I can tell you is, you'd really better pray that first missile across that frontier never gets fired, because that d!ck-measuring contest ends like Reservoir Dogs.
I am well aware of what I'm talking about, and it's not just like a video game, it's very real and very serious it's why its being talked about in the first place.
I cannot possibly fathom NATO or Europe letting attacks on their land slide simply because they were launched from within Russia proper.
We're dealing with hypotheticals here of course, but let's say Russia uses a tactical nuke in Ukraine, (I know yesterday they said they're not even thinking about it, but they also said they weren't even thinking about invading up until the day they invaded)
So Russia uses a tactical Nuke in Ukraine, it was likely fired from one of 3 regions, Belarus (should they start hosting Russian nukes soon thanks to a recent constitutional change), the Crimean Peninsula or the Black Sea. There's a low chance that such a weapon could also be launched directly from Russia itself, particularly the Belgorod region.
So in the event such a weapon is launched from the Black Sea, that's the easiest launch to combat, you can take out the vessels it was launched from and then theoretically call it a day. If it came from Belarus, you would almost certainly have to target the launch sites in Belarus, and potentially other Russian miltary assets in the country, this could also maybe slide as Belarus could be a sacrificial lamb for Russia.
If it comes from Crimea, Russia sees that as their territory so that's a much bigger issue, and likewise Belgorod which is of course intentionally recognized as Russia.
The problem is, in most of these situations any direct military response will likely be seen as a declaration of war by Russia regardless, and lead to further attacks. So our only other option is to then just let bombs rain down because we're too afraid to attack the positions they were launched from.
No I don't take this lightly, it's a deadly serious issue, but its also a conflict that would see a type of warfare that we have never ever seen before, cruise missles and ICBMs, drone warfare between major powers. Obviously I'm hoping it doesn't come to that, but it's a real possibility, and we wouldn't simply be able to let an attack slide because ground forces weren't involved. Which is currently the biggest risk.
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